Friday, October 5, 2012

Venerable Loun Sovath Awarded the 2012 Martin Ennals Award

Venerable Loun Sovath speak to RFA. Photo: Quoc Viet/RFA

Geneva, 4 October 2012.
Venerable Loun Sovath, a Cambodian Buddhist monk, was awarded the 2012
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in a ceremony held in
Geneva, Switzerland, on 2nd October 2012. Venerable Sovath is the 21st
laureate and first Southeast Asian to be presented with the award. He
was selected for documenting the struggle of land rights activists and
ordinary citizens evicted from their homes in Cambodia. Nasrin
Sotoudeh, a prominent human rights activist from Iran arrested in
September 2012 for being a member of the Defenders of Human Rights
Center and the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, whose co-founder and
FIDH deputy secretary general Nabeel Rajaab is currently detained, were
the other two nominees for 2012. FIDH congratulates the Venerable and
the other candidates and pays tribute to their on-going struggle for
human rights, often at great personal risks and sacrifice.

The
award to the Venerable comes at a time when serious and systematic
violations of land and housing rights continue unabated, and those who
defend these and other rights are increasingly being intimidated,
arrested, and criminalized by the Cambodian authorities.

More than two million hectares of land have been given in Cambodia
to private companies in the form of land concessions since 1993. Many
of these land concessions have led to countless cases of forced
evictions which has affected hundreds of thousands of Cambodians.
Venerable Loun Sovath has been using multiple media (including video)
to document forced evictions and peaceful demonstrations of land rights
activists. He has been detained several times, threatened by the
authorities to be defrocked, and expelled from his monastery. He has
received threatening phone calls, including death threats. On May 24th
this year, he was arrested in front of Phnom Penh courthouse for
demonstrating in support of the 13 women activists tried in the Boeung Kak Lake case.
Authorities tried to force him to sign a document stating that he would
no longer continue his advocacy efforts. He refused and was later
released.

The Award comes at the heel of the harsh sentencing of Cambodian
journalist Mam Sonando, owner of the independent Beehive Radio Station
and a prominent government critic. On October 1st, the Phnom Penh
Municipal Court found Mam Sonando
guilty on charges of insurrection and inciting people to take up arms
against the state under six articles under the Penal Code and sentenced
him to 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10 million riels. These
groundless charges stem from blanket accusations by the Government that
he was responsible for instigating villagers inhabiting an area of
farmland in Kratie province that has been embroiled in a land dispute
with a foreign company which has been granted a 15,000 hectare economic
land concession.

“The Martin Ennals Award puts the spotlight on the continuing and
escalating intimidation of human rights activists as well as epidemic
land-grabbing in Cambodia. This award not only recognizes Venerable
Loun Sovath’s work but also the courage of countless Cambodians who
have decided to stand up and protect their right to land and housing.
We strongly urge the Cambodian government to cease the harassment of
land rights activists and other human rights defenders. The Cambodian
government should also take all necessary steps to protect the
fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in
Cambodia, guaranteed by both the Constitution of Cambodia and
international human rights law binding on Cambodia”, said Mrs Souhayr
Belhassen, FIDH president.

“Cambodia’s human rights record should be seriously scrutinized in
the context of the country’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the
UN Security Council this month”, Mrs Belhassen added.

The Martin Ennals Award, created in 1993 to honor and protect
individuals who demonstrate exceptional courage in defending and
promoting human rights, is a unique collaboration between ten of the
world’s leading human rights organizations. The Jury is composed of
Amnesty International, Diakonia, Frontline Defenders, Human Rights
First, Human Rights Watch, HURIDOCS, International Commission of
Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH),
International Service for Human Rights and the World Organization
Against Torture (OMCT).